April 28, 2025

Bank of the Southwest Banker Awarded First NMBA SWGSB Scholarship — Jason Garcia, Bank of the Southwest branch in Truth or Consequences, has been awarded the first NMBA scholarship for the summer session of the SW Graduate School of Banking.

A quarter century ago, Sociologist Robert Putnam published “Bowling Alone.” The unlikely blockbuster explored the falloff in civic engagement and community involvement in the latter half of the 20th century — illustrated through the decline of bowling leagues despite increases in bowling.

Recent regulatory discussions typically highlight three key areas of focus: cybersecurity and fraud, challenges in the commercial real estate sector — particularly office vacancy rates — and contingency funding and liquidity sources. In this article, we’ll focus on the third topic: contingency liquidity planning.

Capra Bank President Andres Garcia recently announced the assembly of a local Advisory Board of Directors that includes business and civic leaders, bankers and native New Mexicans.

Retaining talent is one of the greatest challenges banks face in today’s dynamic workforce. In fact, staff retention is among the highest concerns, as noted in the 2024 Annual Survey of Community Banks….

At the beginning of this year, my travels on behalf of ABA took me to Southern California at a time when deadly wildfires were still raging through many neighborhoods in Los Angeles and the surrounding area.